Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention are directed to application-service provision by application-service-provider centers to remote application-service consumers, including small businesses, medium-sized businesses, and other similarly-sized institutions and organizations, as well as to users of individual computers, such as home computers. Rather than executing applications at an application-service-provider center, the applications are instead distributed to remote client sites for execution by virtual machines controlled and managed by an application-service-provider center. Execution of the applications by virtual machines at remote client sites alleviates constraints and bottlenecks associated with communications between client computers and remotely executing applications, while providing management capabilities and security that allow the application-service center to manage application execution as if the remotely executing applications were executing within the application-service center.

Abstract: An electronic image processor (200) for enhancing an artistic intent of an image comprises: an input (210) to receive digital image data of an image to be enhanced; a classifier (220) to identify and classify regions in an image, including assigning to each region one of plural predetermined classifications and a respective degree of confidence in the classification, on the basis of the context of the region within the image, each classification being associated with a perceived degree of saliency of the region to a human viewer of the image; and an enhancer (250) to enhance regions of the image by a degree of enhancement determined at least in part by the respective classification and by the degree of confidence in the classification.

Abstract: Automated inspection method for detecting a defect in a printed image, comprising processing a raster image, sending the raster image to a print process, printing a printed image corresponding to the raster image onto a medium, capturing a target image from at least a part of the printed image at a lower resolution than the printed image, at least in a medium moving direction, converting at least a part of the raster image to a reference image, and comparing the reference image to the target image.

Abstract: Access requests (12) that are to be scheduled to an information storage system (18) include realtime access requests and non-realtime access requests. The realtime access requests are associated with respective completion deadlines. Pending ones of the access requests (12) that are awaiting submission to the information storage system (18) are received. Outstanding ones of the access requests (12) that have been submitted to the information storage system (18) and are awaiting completion by the information storage system (18) are tracked. The pending access requests are submitted to the information storage system (18) based on rules that prioritize the submission of pending access requests such that realtime ones of the pending access requests and realtime ones of the outstanding access requests will be serviced by the information storage system (18) by their associated completion deadlines.

Abstract: A method of determining reliability of electronic documents associated with an event occurring in connection with a computing device may comprise, with a processor, composing a number of search queries based on text included in an event message, searching for a number of electronic documents via a network, said searching performed based on the composed search queries, and ranking the electronic documents identified by said searching based upon an indication of reliability in addressing the event associated with the event message, in which, ranking the electronic documents comprises applying a content source ranking criteria.

Abstract: Processing of at least one digital image includes performing first and second separable block transforms in first and second directions; modifying results of the second block transforms; and performing first and second separable inverse block transforms in the first and second directions on the modified results. Transform coefficients are re-used while performing at least one the transforms. The processing can be performed on 2-D signals such as still images and 3-D signals such as video.

Abstract: A method and apparatus (70) is provided for estimating blur degradation of an image (75) that includes a specular highlight. A specular highlight in the image is first identified (77), for example with user assistance. A blur kernel is then derived by extracting (78A) the identified specular highlight as foreground from the image (75) and using the extracted foreground as the blur kernel (78C). The image (75) can then be deblurred by deconvolution (79) with the derived blur kernel.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention relate to image processing an enhancement relative to the colour emotion domain. In one embodiment, an image processor comprises an input (202) to receive image pixel data and an input (204) to receive colour emotion indicia, the processor being arranged to adjust target pixels of the image in a colour encoding space on the basis of the colour emotion indicia and to output image pixel data resulting therefrom.

Abstract: Systems and methods of face and skin sensitive image enhancement are disclosed. In one aspect, a face map that includes for each pixel of an input image a respective face probability value indicating a degree to which the pixel corresponds to a human face is calculated. A skin map that includes for each pixel of the input image a respective skin probability value indicating a degree to which the pixel corresponds to human skin is ascertained. The input image is enhanced with an enhancement level that varies pixel-by-pixel in accordance with the respective face probability values and the respective skin probability values. In another aspect, a facial content measurement value indicating a degree to which an input image contains human face content is ascertained. A tone-correction process is tuned in accordance with the facial content measurement value. The input image is enhanced in accordance with the tuned tone-correction process.

Abstract: Modification of a digital image includes determining a likelihood of a pixel belonging to a memory color region (110). The memory color region has a preferred color. The modification further includes shifting original color of the pixel toward the preferred color (120). The original color is shifted by an amount that is a function of the likelihood and that is generally less than the difference between the original and preferred colors.

Abstract: Event analysis methods and apparatus in which sequences (44, 46) of one or more events are identified based on event records (20) describing the events. Respective distance values (28) representing distances between ones of the sequences (44, 46) are determined. A configuration of points in a target metric space is constructed based on the distance values (28), where each of the points represents a respective one of the sequences (44, 46). A visual representation (38) of the configuration is presented on a display (34).

Abstract: In a method for estimating a point spread function of an image capture device, a first function representing a captured version of a first test image is obtained, where the first test image containing a substantially ideal vertical transition. A second function representing a captured version of a second test image is also obtained, where the second test image contains a substantially ideal horizontal transition. In addition, the point spread function is estimated from the first function and the second function. Also disclosed herein is a method for image degradation compensation that employs the method for estimating a point spread function.

Abstract: In a method for processing an input image to reduce compression-related artifacts, a plurality of block transforms of the input image having respective plurality of block-grid locations are generated, where each of the block-grid locations is shifted with respect to the block-grid locations in each of the other block transformed images. In addition, a plurality of respective intermediate transform domain filtered images having modified transform coefficients are generated. Per-pixel relative weights are assigned to each of the intermediate transform domain filtered images, where each of the intermediate transform domain filtered images has different contexts, and where the per-pixel relative weights are adaptive to the local context in each of the intermediate transform domain filtered images.

Abstract: Disclosed is a computer implemented method of detecting a defect in a printed image, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a target image comprising digital image data representing a scan of the printed image; receiving a reference image comprising digital image data representing a reference of the printed image; calculating a structural dissimilarity measure, D, associated with a target pixel located in the target image and a reference pixel located in the reference image; and, determining on the basis of the structural dissimilarity measure whether a defect is present at the target pixel, wherein the structural dissimilarity measure is calculated using a structural measure, s, and a contrast measure, c; the structural measure calculated using a spatial cross-correlation associated with a target region, {right arrow over (x)}, containing the target pixel and a reference region, {right arrow over (y)}, containing the reference pixel, and the contrast measure calculated using a standard deviation assoc

Abstract: A method for reducing blur from an image is described. The method includes accessing a blurred image, wherein the blurred image has a width and a length that can be different. The method further includes converting the blurred image into a frequency domain representation of the blurred image and determining an angle of blur from the frequency domain of the blurred image. The method further includes rotating the frequency domain representation of the blurred image by the angle of blur and determining a size of the blur from the rotated frequency domain representation of the blurred image. The method further includes determining a blur kernel associated with the blur, the blur kernel comprising the angle of blur and the size of said blur and de-convoluting the blurred image according to the blur kernel to reduce the blur.

Abstract: Method and system embodiments of the present invention are directed to restoration of corrupted images using spatial-domain image-processing methods that can effectively employ spatial-domain information both in order to avoid various types of artifacts and distortions produced by frequency-domain image-processing operations and to achieve computational efficiency. The various method and system embodiments of the present invention employ a family of penalty functions to constrain iterative restoration images corrupted by both deterministic corruptions, such as motion-induced blur and blurring due to optical misalignment, incorrect positioning of optical components, and defective optical components as well as essentially non-deterministic noise corruption introduced at various stages of image acquisition, image encoding, image storage, and image transmission.

Abstract: Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods and systems for processing signals, particularly signals encoding two-dimensional images, such as photographs, video frames, graphics, and other visually displayed information. In various method embodiments of the present invention, an input image signal is decomposed into an upper-envelope function, a lower-envelope function, and a details function. One or both of the upper-envelope and lower-envelope functions are then modified to produce one or more image-enhancing effects when the modified upper-envelope and lower-envelope functions are recombined with the details function to produce an enhanced image signal.

Abstract: In a method for processing an input image to reduce compression-related artifacts, a plurality of block transforms of the input image having respective plurality of block-grid locations are generated, where each of the block-grid locations is shifted with respect to the block-grid locations in each of the other block transformed images. In addition, a plurality of respective intermediate transform domain filtered images having modified transform coefficients are generated. Per-pixel relative weights are assigned to each of the intermediate transform domain filtered images, where each of the intermediate transform domain filtered images has different contexts, and where the per-pixel relative weights are adaptive to the local context in each of the intermediate transform domain filtered images.

Abstract: A method for a digital printing press includes estimating a developer voltage by applying a developer voltage estimation model to measurements of state parameters of the digital printing press.

Abstract: A method for reducing blur from an image is described. The method includes accessing a blurred image, wherein the blurred image has a width and a length that can be different. The method further includes converting the blurred image into a frequency domain representation of the blurred image and determining an angle of blur from the frequency domain of the blurred image. The method further includes rotating the frequency domain representation of the blurred image by the angle of blur and determining a size of the blur from the rotated frequency domain representation of the blurred image. The method further includes determining a blur kernel associated with the blur, the blur kernel comprising the angle of blur and the size of said blur and de-convoluting the blurred image according to the blur kernel to reduce the blur.